Parrish, former LA Times biz reporter, dies at 67

Michael Parrish, a former Los Angeles Times business reporter, died recently from liver failure at the age of 67.

A story on its website states, “After moving to the Business section to report on the environment, Parrish was in Alaska on an unrelated assignment when the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in 1989, according to his friend, Judy Irola. He soon wrote the first of nearly 40 articles on the disaster, including a 1994 front-page story that concluded ‘virtually all the state’s residents’ were suffering in its aftermath.

“During widespread layoffs at The Times in 1995, Parrish lost his job. He discovered his fate when he took a source to lunch and tried to pay the bill with his credit card only to learn the card had been canceled. Irola confirmed the account.

“Parrish went on to freelance for a number of regional and national publications and since 2003 had taught magazine writing and editing at USC.

“He was a ‘committed journalist,’ former Times staff writer Elaine Dutka said in an e-mail, who possessed a ‘crusty yet sensitive soul.'”

Chris Roush is the Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.